


Flames of Eternity

by GuardianofDawn



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Spoilers, Multi, Nonbinary My Unit | Byleth, Time Loop, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-29 13:35:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20797457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianofDawn/pseuds/GuardianofDawn
Summary: "I have been wondering something... If I had not been your student, where would I be right now? Who would I be? Do you ever think about that sort of thing, Professor?""Like what if I had allied with the Empire?""Ah, so you do think about such questions. You can never find answers though, right? We cannot turn back time, so there is no way to go back and try a different path."Except... Byleth could, had, and did. Now if they could figure out how to stop drifting....





	Flames of Eternity

It had been so long since that first skirmish, since the last morning they had woken up in Remire and tasked with protecting three nobles in odd uniform. They never went before Sothis' first use of the Divine Pulse on their behalf. Not because it was impossible - by the time they could rewind so very many years of their life, it was - but because it was simplest. Safest.

First impressions were important. The first time around, Byleth hadn't experienced a true war. They didn't have an intimate knowledge of each lord's strengths and weaknesses. Instead, the fight with the bandits had just been a chore dispatched by Jeralt.

Use the terrain to hide? Check. Use a combat art? Check. Keep the kids safe so the company could finally leave for their Kingdom job? Check. The main priority was protecting Remire Village, but it wouldn't be a good idea to lose a little lordling to potential noble idiocy either. 

Removing their vulneraries hadn't been on the to do list, but it had been for everyone's good really. Without a healer, vulneraries were incredibly valuable. They hadn't trusted three children dressed in finery to be circumspect in their use.

Byleth doesn't remember, but they are fairly sure the three lords spoke to them in passing during that battle. Edelgard was probably evaluating. Claude probably expressed surprise and gratitude. Dimitri was probably most sincere in his thanks, and might have felt beholden even as he was disturbed. The prince had intimated, lifetimes ago, that he had thought Byleth felt nothing when they killed. An easy mistake to make. 

Whatever happened in that skirmish, Byleth could not trust themselves to go back. Not just because they might slip, might greet the lords by name. Might call for a battalion that their father knew he hadn't assigned. Might do any number of things, but the most crucial was the fact that no matter how much Byleth wished to save all of her students - Edelgard included - choosing to die for her to prompt Sothis to recall the Divine Pulse spell was asking too much. 

It is far better for Fódlan's future that Byleth arrives in the dark non-space where their soul and Sothis' commune. The disorientation caused from such a time shift is easy to hide; nausea isn’t something their muscles know how to express yet. And there is always just enough tentative worry that maybe they really **did** die, that seeing Sothis glowing on her throne produces the same curious wonder each time.

Are they in the Holy Tomb, or is this just where Sothis remembers herself to be? Logic would say the latter, but the two of them have a habit of… incredible feats. 

"Honestly! What are you accomplishing with that little stunt!"

_Always nice to hear you care, Sothis._ Always nice to hear her voice again at all. Or it usually was. The last path they had walked, side by side with Edelgard, Byleth had hoped would be the last. They had hoped choosing humanity would mean choosing freedom from this relentless, crimson path.

The first rewind had been a choice, a sacrifice to learn how to better protect Fódlan and undo past regrets. The second rewind was unintentional but not unwelcome. By now, so many times later, the compulsion of the spell to retrace their steps was a familiar sorrow and burden.

"It's like you're trying to get me killed, you fool!"

Sothis' scolding turns to an exhausted sigh. Byleth minds their tongue patiently. The first time through, they had no idea that the green haired girl was more than a fanciful dream. Every time since, Byleth could see Sothis' argument (the Divine Pulse spell was only really useful on the battlefield, for brief stretches of time) but they had only used it at the end of their life. The risk had felt non-existent. Not that they were in a hurry to ever repeat it.

How nice it must be to actually rest after one dies. Perhaps this time, Byleth might be granted that luxury. 

The goddess is still speaking, surprised to have remembered her name, surprised she was able to stop time. Her memories always take so much longer than Byleth's to return in any clear fashion. For all that Byleth has lived centuries now, Sothis will always be far older. And the near millennium long sleep in death - the closest Sothis was capable of in this universe - did her memory no favors. 

They bowed, thanked her, and asked the child-like goddess to send them back for the first-time-again. 

“Yes, you who bears the flames within. Drift through the flow of time to find the answers that you seek.”

Technically speaking Byleth no longer remembered precisely how Kostas came for Edelgard. It didn't matter either. All they had to do was slide into place a moment sooner and on guard and the thief was easily convinced to turn tail and run. 

Claude and Dimitri fell in quickly, from curiosity or a desire to help. How far away had they been when Kostas attacked? They couldn't think. It was too overwhelming seeing all three of them so young. 

Jeralt urged Arne to a trot, his voice definitely concerned. Byleth carefully did not meet his eyes. 

"Hey, did you just…"

'Travel through space and time to try and put the ghosts of other timelines to rest? Why yes, dad, thanks so much for noticing. Please try not to die this time. A piece of me dies with you every time you do.'

There is too much to say, too much that cannot be said. Jeralt is alive again and that is so much more painful than the young lords not trusting them. Because Byleth can save at least two lords if they are careful. No tactic has worked to save their father yet. Every time feels like a second chance and like they are haunted by a ghost.

They’ve never been able to blame Dimitri and the madness his guilt and the shades haunting him creates. Not when they live with a dead-and-alive goddess and walk amongst friends, family, and acquaintances alike they’ve watched die too many times.

“Hey, the thieves are running away! Go after them!”

Byleth turns away from whatever Jeralt might have read on their face, grateful for the distraction ofAlois’ voice. The knight was loud, blunt, relentlessly cheerful, and the perfect distraction. 

Byleth pleasantly told him that they were a bandit when prompted, and watched Alois visibly decide to take his wandering father figure and plus one back home to the monastery. An invitation that couldn’t be refused without repercussions. Byleth could dodge, they had on occasion, but that always resulted in shorter, drabber lives for their students.

No, they would go to Garegg Mach, to the epicenter of the change that would rock through Fódlan in less than a year’s time for better and for worse.

**Author's Note:**

> I have so very many feelings about time travel fix-its as a genre and about this fandom. While I don't necessarily think the game needs a golden ending or anything of the sort, my heart wants to pretend there's a way, somewhere somehow, to give all of our kids happily ever afters.


End file.
